John Mercer Langston

John Mercer Langston (14 December 1829-15 November 1897) was a member of the US House of Representatives (R-VA 4) from 23 September 1890 to 3 March 1891, succeeding Edward Carrington Venable and preceding James F. Epes.

Biography
John Mercer Langston was born in Louisa, Louisa County, Virginia in 1829 to a white planter and a free African-American woman of mixed African and Pamunkey Native American descent. Raised in Chillicothe, Ohio, he became a lawyer in 1854, and he became active in the abolitionist movement and helped slaves travelling along the Underground Railroad. In 1863, he became a recruiter of black troops for the Union Army during the American Civil War, helping to raise the 54th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment. After the war, he became Inspector General for the Freedmen's Bureau during Reconstruction, and he served as President of the National Equal Rights League from 1864 to 1868. In 1868, he established and served as dean of Howard University's law school, and, in 1870, he helped to draft the Civil Rights Act of 1875. He went on to serve as minister to Haiti from 1877 to 1885 (and acting minister to the Dominican Republic from 1884 to 1885), and, in 1888, he was elected to the US House of Representatives as Virginia's first black representative; the election was originally considered a Democratic victory, but Langston successfully challenged the results and served from 1890 to 1891. He lost for re-election, and it was not until a century later that another African-American was elected to the House from Virginia. From 1891 until his death in 1897, he practiced law in Washington DC. He was a great-uncle of Langston Hughes.